The Bell Hooks article is marvelous, probably the best thing of hers I’ve ever read. And I am grateful for the more detailed information about Adidas.

The major point of disagreement between her and me (and between you and me) is the belief that accusing someone of being a capitalist is a meaningful criticism. We are all capitalists, because capitalism is the only system that actually exists. The “socialist” societies which actually work are all capitalist ones with greatly enhanced government infrastructure. Those societies that tried to eliminate capitalism completely collapsed spectacularly during Gorbachev’s time, except for Venezuela which is undergoing a similar collapse now. Everyone who has actually lived in a society without capitalism has hated it.

This collapse created a sense of overconfidence for the cruelest forms of robber capitalism, which is now being eclipsed in the Republican Party by the populist fascism of Trump. What we need to save ourselves from both of these ideologies is a capitalism with an infrastructure that creates genuine opportunities for all. That would mean free healthcare, childcare, and education for everyone, a guaranteed minimum income, and anti-trust laws to ensure that the chance for substantial affluence is available to all that want it (and because capitalism cannot work unless there is genuine competition).

We also need an ideology that creates a sense of social responsibility for those capitalists with the most power, rather than one which lets wealthy capitalists off the hook by claiming that capitalism is necessarily evil.